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NATIONAL SECURITY STRATEGY
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exchanges in our hemisphere. And we are catalyzing economic growth and innovation within societies
by lifting up and promoting entrepreneurship.
Prevent Mass Atrocities
The mass killing of civilians is an affront to our common humanity and a threat to our common security. It
destabilizes countries and regions, pushes refugees across borders, and creates grievances that extrem-
ists exploit. We have a strong interest in leading an international response to genocide and mass atroci-
ties when they arise, recognizing options are more extensive and less costly when we act preventively
before situations reach crisis proportions. We know the risk of mass atrocities escalates when citizens
are denied basic rights and freedoms, are unable to hold accountable the institutions of government,
or face unrelenting poverty and conflict. We affirm our support for the international consensus that
governments have the responsibility to protect civilians from mass atrocities and that this responsibil-
ity passes to the broader international community when those governments manifestly fail to protect
their populations. We will work with the international community to prevent and call to account those
responsible for the worst human rights abuses, including through support to the International Criminal
Court, consistent with U.S. law and our commitment to protecting our personnel. Moreover, we will
continue to mobilize allies and partners to strengthen our collective efforts to prevent and respond to
mass atrocities using all our instruments of national power.
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V. International Order
We have an opportunity—and obligation—to lead the way in reinforcing, shaping, and where appropri-
ate, creating the rules, norms, and institutions that are the foundation for peace, security, prosperity, and
the protection of human rights in the 21st century. The modern-day international system currently relies
heavily on an international legal architecture, economic and political institutions, as well as alliances and
partnerships the United States and other like-minded nations established after World War II. Sustained
by robust American leadership, this system has served us well for 70 years, facilitating international
cooperation, burden sharing, and accountability. It carried us through the Cold War and ushered in a
wave of democratization. It reduced barriers to trade, expanded free markets, and enabled advances
in human dignity and prosperity.
But, the system has never been perfect, and aspects of it are increasingly challenged. We have seen too
many cases where a failure to marshal the will and resources for collective action has led to inaction.
The U.N. and other multilateral institutions are stressed by, among other things, resource demands,
competing imperatives among member states, and the need for reform across a range of policy and
administrative areas. Despite these undeniable strains, the vast majority of states do not want to replace
the system we have. Rather, they look to America for the leadership needed to both fortify it and help
it evolve to meet the wide range of challenges described throughout this strategy.
The United States will continue to make the development of sustainable solutions in all of these areas
a foreign policy priority and devote diplomatic and other resources accordingly. We will continue to
embrace the post-World War II legal architecture—from the U.N. Charter to the multilateral treaties that
govern the conduct of war, respect for human rights, nonproliferation, and many other topics of global
concern—as essential to the ordering of a just and peaceful world, where nations live peacefully within
their borders, and all men and women have the opportunity to reach their potential. We will lead by
example in fulfilling our responsibilities within this architecture, demonstrating to the world it is pos-
sible to protect security consistent with robust values. We will work vigorously both within the U.N. and
other multilateral institutions, and with member states, to strengthen and modernize capacities—from
peacekeeping to humanitarian relief—so they endure to provide protection, stability, and support for
future generations.
At the same time, we will exact an appropriate cost on transgressors. Targeted economic sanctions
remain an effective tool for imposing costs on those irresponsible actors whose military aggression, illicit
proliferation, or unprovoked violence threaten both international rules and norms and the peace they
were designed to preserve. We will pursue multilateral sanctions, including through the U.N., whenever
possible, but will act alone, if necessary. Our sanctions will continue to be carefully designed and tailored
to achieve clear aims while minimizing any unintended consequences for other economic actors, the
global economy, and civilian populations.
In many cases, our use of targeted sanctions and other coercive measures are meant not only to uphold
international norms, but to deter severe threats to stability and order at the regional level. We are not
allowing the transgressors to define our regional strategies on the basis of the immediate threats they
present. Rather, we are advancing a longer-term affirmative agenda in each of the regions, which pri-
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